What's in a name?

Pretty much as they say that 'God moves in mysterious ways' one could perfectly say that 'stupidity comes in mysterious ways'. To support this claim, let me comment on a recent report I found in an online newspaper.

This is, essentially, a weird consequence of the 'Obamania' that nowadays makes the world happy and that sooner than later will disappoint us. According to this report, Barack Obama was able to inspire a couple in Cali, Colombia to name their newborn 'Barack Obama'. So, yes, there's someone in this world whose first name is (or sounds like) 'Barack Obama', with last name 'Sandoval Fajardo'. (Yes, in Colombia is common to use two first names and two last names.)

The mother said she expected her newborn to be as humble as Obama. The Colombian state ---represented by some public hospital--- was truly touched by this sweet and noble incarnation of stupidity, and will complement it by giving the kid free medical care and milk for six months. (Yes, not only the Colombian state rewards stupidity but also discriminates those parents who named their kids with conventional names.)

But let us avoid the political side of the story. Perhaps the most disturbing part of the news is that the actual spelling of the name was not confirmed. Since in Colombian Spanish sounds associated to letters "b" and "v" and to letters "c" and "k" are indistinguishable, a number of frightening spelling errors are possible. For instance, the poor baby could be named "Baracovama Sandoval Fajardo" or "Varakc Hovama Sandoval Fajardo", or even "Barako Vama Sandoval Fajardo".

It must be said that weird names are rather common in the Colombian and Latinamerican culture. This deserves a post (or even a series of posts). In Colombia, I observe that this is a phenomena most commonly found among low educated people. When naming a kid they prefer originality (in the most liberal definition of the word you can imagine) over common sense or psychological welfare of the newborn. This way, for example, one finds people called "John Kennedy" or "Usnavy", drawing inspiration from the 35th president and the navy of the USA, respectively.

How about that?